Chester and Connah's Quay Railway

The Chester & Connah's Quay Railway ran from Chester Northgate in Chester, Cheshire, England to Shotton, Flintshire, Wales. It was built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (which later became the Great Central Railway) and was opened on 31 March 1890.

At Dee Marsh Junction it connected with the North Wales and Liverpool Railway. It then crossed the River Dee by means of Hawarden Bridge before joining the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway at Shotton.

The only section of the Chester & Connah's Quay Railway which remains in use is between Dee Marsh Junction and Shotton, forming part of the Borderlands Line. The rest of the line closed to passenger trains in 1969, but remained open to freight trains until 1992. Even though steelmaking operations at the Corus plant at Shotton ceased in March 1980,[1] freight continued to use the double-tracked line until 20 April 1984. Goods services resumed on a single-track line on 31 August 1986 before final closure in 1992.[2].This was precipitated by the closure of Ravenscraig steelworks in Motherwell, Scotland, as freight trains using the line ran between Ravenscraig and Shotton rolling mill.

Since the line between Chester and Dee Marsh closed, the track has been lifted and the route is now a cycle path, forming part of Route 5 of the National Cycle Network.

Junction maps

A 1906 map showing (right) the western end of the line around Shotton and Saughall
A 1903 map showing the eastern end of the line around Chester and Blacon
Railway Clearing House Junction Diagrams showing portions of the Chester and Connah's Quay Railway and neighbouring lines
Chester & Connah's Quay Railway
Legend
North Wales Coast Line
Connahs Quay
Wrexham, Mold and
Connahs Quay Dock and Goods
Connah's Quay Railway
Borderlands Line
Shotton
Hawarden Bridge
Queensferry
Sealand
Sandycroft
Saughall
Mold-Denbigh Line
Blacon
Shrewsbury-Chester Line
Chester Liverpool Road
Roodee Viaduct, River Dee
Chester Northgate
Wirral Line
Chester
Chester-Manchester Line
Chester- Crewe Line
Mid-Cheshire Line


References

  1. ^ "Shotton Steelworks and Garden City". http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/flintshire/pages/steel.shtml. Retrieved 6 October 2008. 
  2. ^ Oppitz, Leslie (1997). Cheshire Railways Remembered. Countryside Books. p. 111. ISBN 1-85306-458-0. 

External links